UCLA basketball coach John Wooden would have been 100 years old on Thursday, Oct. 14. He passed away June 4, leaving his lessons for the sports world and beyond. AP Photo

LOS ANGELES – Inside his UCLA athletic department office, football coach Rick Neuheisel keeps one letter on his desk because its message endures, much like the memory of the author.

The entire Wooden family wishes you best of luck in your first game as head coach of our UCLA football Bruins and for many following games to come. There will be peaks and valleys but the true fans will magnify the blessings rather than the disappointments. Hope to see you soon. Sincerely, John

The note, which arrived before Neuheisel's Sept. 1, 2008 coaching debut and season-opening upset victory over Tennessee in overtime, was penned in the careful cursive of former basketball coach John Wooden.

Wooden, who died June 4, would have been 100 years old on Thursday. Westwood will celebrate the Wizard's birthday with several on-campus festivities while others recall the gifts he gave us in his timeless lessons.

Neuheisel, who has endured the peaks and valleys of 21/2 football seasons (14-17), likely will pause as his eyes pass over Wooden's stationery.

"It sits right here on my desk so I'm reminded of Coach Wooden all the time," he said.

UCLA basketball coach Ben Howland, who calls himself simply the "steward" of the program that will always belong to Wooden, soon will begin another season in Pauley Pavilion, where Wooden's seat — Section 103 B, Row 2, Seat 1 — will forever be reserved in his memory.

"I don't think what Coach Wooden achieved can be done again because the landscape had changed," said Hall of Fame center and NBA all-time leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who led the Bruins to three consecutive national championships from 1967-69.

"Basketball now is a worldwide entertainment. It's a show and it's about winning and championships at all costs, and Coach cared about the basic values of family, education and integrity — the things which we sometimes fail to put first."

Said Bill Walton, who played for Wooden from 1972-74 and captured 1972 and 1973 titles: "There will never be another John Wooden. Period."

He had winning records in each of his 27 UCLA seasons (620-147 overall, 316-68 conference). But it wasn't until his 16th season that Wooden guided the Bruins to the first of 10 NCAA titles (1964, 1966-1973, 1975).

In today's title-obsessed and overnight-success sports world, few programs would wait 16 seasons to trim down the most prized net. It would be even more of a stretch for a coach to have a 27-year tenure.

"In this win-now world where you've got to find a way, it's hard (for a program) to have the kind of patience but I think that patience gets rewarded," Neuheisel said.

Wooden was that man who prized education and personal development over success in the box scores. Gary Cunningham, captain of Wooden's 1962 title team and an assistant coach from 1969-75, knew Wooden's priorities.

At the start of every season, Wooden, Cunningham recalled, wrote down a prediction of how he thought the team would do and slipped the paper in his top desk drawer. Nobody ever saw it but Coach.

"In all the years I coached with him, I never heard him use a swear word or talk about winning, and winning is all that seems to matter today," Cunningham said. "He was competitive, oh yes, and had his goals but he didn't make winning our goal. It was about competitive greatness, playing your best."

Fulfilling potential wouldn't get a coach a rollover contract in today's college basketball in which championship banners — and the recruitment of the talent that can win you that hardware — are the bottom lines.

"Coach believed in practice, repetition and discipline not one bit of star treatment," said Keith Erickson (1963-65), who was a teammate of NBA-bound Gail Goodrich and Walt Hazzard.

"He had Bill Walton cut his hair or he was off the team. He had Bill and Kareem spend 30 minutes learning how to put on their socks properly. He had everyone doing the same ridiculous change-of-pace, change-of-direction warmup before the 1964 NCAA Finals, and we were 29-0."

Blue-chip talent runs modern college basketball.

One player can change a program's fortunes and make or break a coach's contract. Wooden's demands wouldn't sit well with some of today's coddled, entitled players who will transfer, jump to play overseas or leave early for the NBA if they are unhappy with their minutes, their exposure, their picture on the pocket schedule or the brand of sneaker they are wearing.

"I think he would have a problem with the tattoos and the dunks," said Michael Warren (1966-1968). "But if it got around that there was this legendary coach who was out there and running a team, I'd bet you'd eventually see less tattoos and more players learning fundamentals."

But today's basketball isn't as simple as it used to be.

Wooden begrudged this during a UCLA game a decade ago when Shepherd of the Hills Church pastor Dudley Rutherford asked him, "Coach, could you coach today?"

Wooden shook his head no.

"Tattoos, earrings," paused Wooden when Bruins guard Baron Davis bounded down the lane, whipped the ball behind his back and under a leg and fired it off the glass to a leaping Jelani McCoy, who grabbed the ball and pounded it through the rim, thrilling the thundering Pauley Pavilion crowd.

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